How Can People Find Out What Is Right And Wrong?
Answer: We can know what is right by knowing God. God is perfect and always right, so everything good matches what God is like.
For example, we know it is right to be loving and kind because God is love. Everything that is wrong goes against what God is like.
We can learn what God is like by reading his Word, the Bible. The Bible helps us know how to be like God and act as he does.
God has given us rules and guidance for how to live. Those are also in the Bible.
When we read rules such as the Ten Commandments, we know how God wants us to act.
Key verse: Be careful to obey all of these commands. You must do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God. If you do, all will go well with you and your children forever. (Deuteronomy 12:28)
Related verses: Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6- 22; John 14:6; 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Related questions: How can everyone know what is right and what is wrong? My friends do things that I think are wrong-how do I know if they are right or not?
Could it ever be wrong to do something I think is right? Why is New Age wrong?
Note to parents: A child may use this question as an excuse to disobey you or to be disrespectful to teachers and others in authority.
“How do you know that such and such is wrong?” God determines what is right and wrong, but he also tells children to honor and obey their parents and to respect the authorities.
Encourage your children to trust God and his Word, because he wants the best for us.
Why Do People Do Wrong When They Know That It’s Wrong?
Answer: People do wrong because of their sinful nature. Many, many years ago, God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve.
But soon afterward, Adam and Eve committed the first sin – they disobeyed God. You can read about it in Genesis 3:1-24.
Before then, the world was perfect, with no sin, evil, or wrongdoing. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin entered the world, and ever since then, everyone has been born with a sinful nature.
In other words, people find it natural to do what is wrong; they find it easy to choose to do wrong.
This is a weakness that all people have. Sometimes people will do something even when they know it is wrong because they are afraid of what others will say if they do right.
They might feel pressured by friends to do wrong. They might have a bad habit. It’s not that everything they do is wrong; they can do good and make right choices, too.
But they find it easy to make the wrong choices. People still have the same choice today that Adam and Eve had.
We can trust God and follow his way, or we can decide for ourselves what is right and wrong and do it our own way, the wrong way.
Key verse: When Adam sinned, sin entered the whole human race. His sin spread death through all the world. Everything began to grow old and die because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)
Related verses: Genesis 3:1-24; Isaiah 53:6; Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38; Romans 6:23
Note to parents: Give hope that your child can do right; the fact that there is sin doesn’t mean a person has to do wrong.
This may be the time to explain that Jesus came to die for us and that through faith in him we can be free from the power of sin in our lives.
Why Is It Wrong To Be Bad?
Answer: It is wrong to be bad because God created us to do good. Think about your bicycle.
It was made for riding, for helping you go from one place to another faster and easier than walking.
If you tried to use your bike to scrape snow off the sidewalk or to ride across a lake, it wouldn’t work- and it would mess up your bike, too.
That’s not what your bike was made for. In the same way, God designed us to do what is good and right, to bring honor to him.
When we do bad things, we do what we were not created to do. God created everything; he knows what works and what doesn’t, and he knows what will make us happy and what will hurt us.
And he loves us! If we trust him, we will do things his way.
Key verse: It is God himself who has made us what we are. He has given us new lives from Christ Jesus. Long ago he planned that we should spend our lives in helping others. (Ephesians 2:10)
Related verses: Romans 3:23; Ephesians 1:5-6
Related questions: Why is it wrong to do bad things? Why can I do certain things and not others?
Why is it bad to do certain things and not others? Why should I be good?
Note to parents: It may be helpful to save the word wrong for moral issues. You could avoid saying, for example, that it’s wrong to wear stripes with polka dots.
Unusual habits or choice of clothing may invite criticism from peers, but it’s not wrong in the sense of being morally wrong.
This makes a clear distinction between wrongdoing and bad taste.